Maybe time travel isn't SO bad
by AlwaysInADream
Summary: A Narcissa/Tom mentor fic with an AFGNCAAP for a narrator. Because... i can? No actual connection to my other time-travel fic.


**ATUHOR'S NOSE:** Again, for a challenge, I choose a pairing that ends up requiring time travel. I really should check these things earlier.

Maybe not jump so quickly to "Tom Riddle".

* * *

><p>Tom Riddle lifted his wand. The brand was complete. We were Death Eaters.<p>

"What now, my Lord?"

He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "It occurs to me that the best way to assure our victory would be to exploit causality."

I blinked, confused. "Um. What?"

"Of course, you don't know. I intend to reach into the future and pluck one of my future servants from the timestream. In order to prevent paradox, we will be invulnerable until that time."

"Is... that how it works?"

"Think. It cannot possibly work any other way."

And with that proclamation, the Dark Lord began incanting a spell I did not recognize. For several minutes he stood there, muttering incomprehensibly. Eventually, with a crackle of energy, a woman materialized out of thin air and fell to the ground.

I looked at her. She bore the same Dark Mark that my - our Lord had invented not minutes ago. She was unmistakably one of his servants from the future. But I did not recognize her in the slightest. "My Lord, just how far into the future did you reach?"

"I didn't measure all that precisely," he whispered to me, "but I figured a good fifty years would suffice." He turned to the woman he had summoned. "I am certain you recognize me, but I'm afraid that I have not yet met you, miss...?"

"... my Lord? But. How?"

"Your name."

She shook her head. "Apologies, my Lord. I am Narcissa Black, your faithful servant. I have been summoned into your childhood?"

The Dark Lord looked at me, grinning. "It seems we will reign for quite some time, if she thinks of me as a child in this state!"

"M- my apologies if I have offended you with my careless words, my Lord!"

"Never mind, Black, never mind. Tell me, how long have I reigned?"

"You- you've just been killed! By a mere boy! I... I can prevent it, I think."

The Dark Lord looked on in shock. "Y- yes! We must immediately find this boy's ancestor and kill him!"

"No!"

"No?"

"My Lord, I suspect that if you simply kill the boy's ancestor, you will merely be defeated by someone else. No, we must eliminate his reason to kill you."

I looked at the two of them, completely baffled. "But. My Lord! You just said!"

"Quiet. Now it is time to train."

* * *

><p>The three of us were sitting in a clearing in the Forbidden Forest. Narcissa had just given a lecture on love and its protective qualities.<p>

"But... I kill many people in my future, your past, do I not? How is it that all of them did not and will not provide this protection?"

"I am not certain, my Lord, but I think they must specifically be given a choice. Those you can kill before they react will protect nobody. And they must _choose_ death."

I winced. Twice now, the conversation had turned to death, and it was never pretty.

"Then we will never come across it! Nobody would choose death!"

"It. Has. Already. Happened. You must understand that. You cannot say it will not happen."

"But... any choice would be better than death!"

"The Kiss?"

"Except a Dementor's Kiss, fine, but that is the only thing!"

She sighed. "The reason you died is because you could not understand love. It is love that drives those to choose death, and love that causes this protection."

Sigh. Back here. I already knew where this was going. But I had no choice but to bear it.

* * *

><p>Twenty-five times she attempted to explain the power of love. Twenty-five times he refused to understand.<p>

I idly considered Stunning myself to end this misery, when, with a crackle, a boy appeared. "Another time traveler?"

"Voldemort! I'm here to end your reign before it begins!"

The Dark Lord frowned. "How do you know my chosen name? I have not yet told anyone... Oh, right. Future."

"My Lord! This is the very boy!"

More crackles. The same boy appeared, again and again.

"And. More of him."

"Uh."

"I'll fight you as many times as it takes!"

"You can't defeat me, boy! You already know my reign! You can't stop it!"

"You violated causality first!" he shouted, looking significantly at Narcissa. "Besides, the universe eats paradoxes for breakfast, it can handle one measly Dark Lord dying too early!"

"Wait, what?"

The Dark Lord's question never got answered, as the boy and his alternate selves began casting a vicious web of curses. There was no escape.

When I came to, the Dark Lord had been incinerated. There was nothing left of him in the world. One instance of the boy was still there, and I had to ask.

"But... you caused a paradox! How...?"

The boy shrugged and brushed his hair out of his face, revealing a lightning-bolt scar that was fading rapidly. "A paradox isn't that much worse than any other deviation from the alpha timeline. All the universe does... is fade away."


End file.
